Shortcut vs. mirroring

[fabric_user]

Hi,

I am curious about the shortcut functionality in Fabric.

• Are no Fabric shortcuts (including both internal shortcuts - which point to OneLake locations, and external shortcuts - pointing to for example Amazon S3, ADLS, Dataverse) copying data from the source system into OneLake?
  
  
• When I am looking at or querying the data in a shortcut table which is pointing to an external location (S3, ADLS, Dataverse), is Fabric sending live queries to the external data source, or does Fabric keep a synced version of the external data in OneLake?
  
  
• Will new data in the shortcut target be available in the Fabric shortcut instantly (let's say, less than 1 second) after the data has been created in the shortcut target (I am thinking of both internal and external shortcuts)?

My impression is that no data gets copied when using shortcuts (both internal and external), so I'm just asking this question to verify if my impression is right 😀

Thanks! 😀


For mirroring, I understand that data is being synced (copied) into OneLake which means that data is being stored in OneLake.

[fabric_user]

Thank you

I see that Dataverse Link may take up to 60 minutes to sync/update changed data: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-apps/maker/data-platform/azure-synapse-link-view-in-fabric#m...

I guess Dataverse Link is not the same as shortcut, but another concept

[HimanshuS-msft · Accepted solution]

Hello  @fabric_user
Thanks for using the Fabric community.Your impression is correct . Shortcuts are objects in OneLake that point to other storage locations.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/fabric/onelake/onelake-shortcuts#what-are-shortcuts

Adding relavent...

What are shortcuts?

Shortcuts are objects in OneLake that point to other storage locations. The location can be internal or external to OneLake. The location that a shortcut points to is known as the target path of the shortcut. The location where the shortcut appears is known as the shortcut path. Shortcuts appear as folders in OneLake and any experience or service that has access to OneLake can use them. Shortcuts behave like symbolic links. They're an independent object from the target. If you delete a shortcut, the target remains unaffected. If you move, rename, or delete a target path, the shortcut can break

Thanks
HImanshu

[v-gchenna-msft]

Hi @fabric_user ,

Glad to know that your query got resolved. Please continue using Fabric Community for your further queries.